Haunting Violet
Page 84

“Good.” I yawned. “I really don’t like him,” I muttered groggily. I glanced at Colin. “Thank you for punching him.”
“My pleasure,” he said grimly.
I struggled to peel open my third eye, which felt crusted over with sleep. Mr. Rochester sat up from where he’d apparently been curled up on my lap. He looked straight at me and barked happily. I had to smile.
Tabitha watched me hopefully. “Rowena?”
I shook my head. “Gone,” I whispered.
She nodded, biting her lip.
“Finally at peace.” Lord Jasper touched her shoulder. “I’ve sent word to your father. You will, of course, stay here with us until he can be located.”
“Thank you.” She fiddled with her ring.
“I want you both to rest now,” he added, taking Caroline and Colin with him.
After another day of rest I woke ravenous. I ate a mountain of food and felt well enough to get dressed. Tabitha still kept to her bed though she looked like she was improving. Elizabeth snuck into our adjoining parlor before the breakfast tray was even cleared. She wasn’t properly dressed, just swaddled in a voluminous robe.
“Oh, Violet, you’re better!” she exclaimed, rushing to hug me. I hugged her back.
“I’m much better,” I assured her. “I thought you’d left already.”
“We’re the last of the guests and we’re off today. That’s why I snuck over here. Mother forbade me to talk to you.” She pouted. “Which seems a fine how-do-you-do since you discovered a murderer and brought him to justice. To your own peril, I might add.”
“But I did it in my underwear.”
She sighed with a small grin. “Yes, that doesn’t help.”
I shrugged. “I’m just glad it’s over.”
“No sign of Rowena?”
“Not since the ball.”
“That’s good, right?”
“I think so.”
She hugged me again. “I’d best go before she comes looking for me. I’ll write to you.”
It occurred to me that I wasn’t entirely sure where she should address her envelopes. The lease on our town house had expired and we didn’t have enough money to renew it. I wasn’t sure I could do enough readings to fix that particular problem. My head hurt just to think about it.
I decided to go for a walk now that I was finally out of bed. I found Colin around the back of the stables, leaning against a tree, shirtsleeves rolled up. I picked my way through the dandelions toward him. He pushed away from the oak, grinning.
“Violet.”
“I was worried you’d gone back to London.” I couldn’t help the wide, silly smile on my face.
“As if I would leave without you,” he said like I was daft. He reached for my hand. His palm was warm and callused and comforting, even as pleasant tingles danced in my belly. “Where are you off to, then?”
“I’m going to visit Mr. Travis.”
“I’ll come too.”
We walked the hedge-lined road down to the village. Colin picked blackberries and wrapped them up in a handkerchief for later. The sun was warm on my shoulders. We stopped once so I could steal a few apples from a tree at the edge of an orchard. I gave one to Colin, remembering what he’d said about his mother’s apple pie. He placed it very carefully on the low stone wall before closing his hands around my shoulders and hauling me up against him. I felt a small bundle in the top pocket of his coat. His kiss was long and slow and wicked. We stopped when a cart rumbled down the road toward us.
The village was small, with pretty cottages and a main street lined with shops. We found the painted sign for Travis and Sons Tailors and went inside, where one of Reece’s brothers pointed us upstairs. Reece’s very pregnant sister-in-law answered the door and led us into the bedroom.
Reece lay on a narrow bed by a window, a table cluttered with medicines beside him. There were bruises on his face, a bandage wrapped around his head, and another bandage binding his leg.
“Miss Willoughby.” He smiled. “I’m glad to see you’re well.”
“I’ve brought you a gift,” I said gently, handing him a ribbon-wrapped pile of letters. The smell of lily-of-the-valley perfume thickened the air. “I convinced Tabitha to give them to you.” His eyes looked suspiciously bright. I looked away to allow him to compose himself. Colin stood just behind me, his shoulder brushing mine.
“Thank you.” Reece’s hands trembled slightly when he reached for the packet. “I only kept the one,” he explained. “I sent them back to her when I tried to leave her. She kept them and planned an elopement instead. I never could deny her anything.” He clutched them tightly as if he meant to never let them go.
We left him so he could read them in private and headed back to Rosefield.
“I’m really going to miss it here,” I told Colin. He just wound his fingers around mine, and we went up the tree-lined lane and through the forest of roses to the front door. Lord Jasper was in the foyer, finishing a consultation with Mrs. Harris about dinner. A footman bowed to me, handing me a letter. I nearly groaned as I reached for it. I’d had my fill of letters lately.
This one was no better.
“Mother has quit the town house,” I told Colin quietly. “And has accepted Lord Marshall’s protection.” My mother had set herself up as a mistress. I grimaced and kept reading. “Marshall moved her into new lodgings. And as daughters are a liability to a paramour’s work, I am not welcome.” Colin’s hand clenched at his side. “She says she was on her own at sixteen and I can be too, seeing as I stole the Spiritualist reputation she worked so hard to maintain.”